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May 2016

From the start it has been our intention to make GIP a truly ‘Glasgow’ project and our project researcher Jack Baldwin has been visiting other city institutions in the past year to examine and describe all the fifteenth century books known. Delighted to be sharing the results of this collaborative effort, we are now adding details of these incunabula into the project website. The latest uploaded batch therefore documents one book from Strathclyde University Archives and Special Collections, and five books from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

Colophon from Praepositus (or not!): Strathclyde University

It is fascinating to see the overlap in the various Glasgow collections. Chemistry is an obvious connection between our rare book collections and those of Strathclyde University. The Strathclyde copy of the pharmaceutical treatise Dispensarium ad aromatarios by Nicolaus Praepositus is from the collection of James “Paraffin” Young (1811-1883). This fantastic…

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“Incunabula is the plural of the Latin word incunabulum, a cradle. Evolving from its original meaning, incunabulum came to mean “place of birth” or “beginning.” In the world of books, the word incunabula refers to books that were printed using metal type up to the year 1500.”

It is generally accepted that the “42-line Bible” that Gutenberg printed is the First Printed book, printed around 1454/5 marking Incunabulum number one. Over the last few decades I have had the pleasure of selling over three hundred incunabula and I am always looking to find collections and single examples to find new homes for. There is a romance to these books which I never tire of. Their production seems so inspired, to me they are the first intellectual machines, a revolution in the distribution of knowledge and a creation of a new space for mankind to dwell in. Here I have made a list of eight, fifteenth century books in my current stock.
Please enjoy!

In the period of transition from manuscripts to books, authorship wasn’t as significant as it is in modern day, this particular book is an example of some of these complications. No longer attributed to Bonaventura, now attributed to Conrad of Saxony, his date and place of birth are uncertain. Holyinger is perhaps his family name. This error has been made by some of confounding Conrad of Saxony with another person of the same name who suffered for the Faith in 1284, whereas it is certain that they were two distinct individuals, though belonging to the same province of the order in Germany. Our Conrad became provincial minister of the province of Saxony in 1245, and for sixteen years ruled the province with much zeal and prudence. While on his way to the general chapter of 1279; he was attacked with a grievous illness and died at Bologna in 1279. The writings of Conrad of Saxony include several sermons and now the Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis; the latter, at times erroneously attributed to St. Bonaventure, was edited by the Friars Minor at Quaracchi in 1904. The preface to this excellent edition of the Speculum contains a brief sketch of the ife of Conrad of Saxony and a critical estimate of his other writings. ” Goff B959; BMC II 343

A-C8, a10, b-y8, i8, z10, (lacks A1 & z10 blanks). This copy is bound in full older vellum with manscrcipt title on the spine, a very clean and crisp copy.

Marchesinus was a Franciscan friar from Reggio Emilia, near Modena. Originally titled Mammotreptus (“The Nursling”), this work was reportedly written in 1466 (according to Fabricus, Bibl. Lat. II, ed. 1858, pp. 12 and 22). This popular guide to understanding the text of the Bible explains the grammatical constructs and etymology of difficult words in the Scriptures. Favored by preachers in the later Middle Ages, this work provided explanations of the festivals of the Church year, the legends of the saints, and various liturgical texts. Poorly educated parish priests often referred to this Mammotrectus to help them gain inspiration and appreciation of the Bible so as to prepare compelling sermons.

The Mammotrectus contains about 1,300 articles and is divided into three parts: 1) explanations for difficult biblical words and passages; 2) a series of digressions on orthography, the accents of Latin words, the seven feasts of the Old Testament Law, the clothing of priests, the principles of exegesis and translation, the names of God, the qualities and properties of Scripture, and a treatise on the four main ecumenical councils; 3) liturgical pieces and some related materials (the hymns, legends of saints, sermons and homilies).
First Italian edition. Second edition by Renner; the first 1470 Mainz by Peter Schöffer.

There are three full paged woodcuts two of the tree of sangunity and one of the order of Angels, Seraphim, etc. This is a very nice copy full of deckle edges and in original condition. Each volume of these copies is bound in full, contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards. They retain all 16 corner pieces as well as both sets of clasps. In this wonderful copy, the first woodcut _(a1verso ) of Christ crucified on the tree of sanguinity has been coloured, the two other woodcuts have non. Both volumes have been nicely rubricated throughout with red Lombard capitals supplied as well.

“Bonaventura presents a marked contrast to his great contemporaries,
Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon. While these may be taken as
representing respectively physical science in its infancy, and Aristotelian scholasticism in its most perfect form, he brings before us the mystical and Platonizing mode of speculation. […] To him the purely intellectual element, though never absent, is of inferior interest when compared with the living power of the affections or the heart.” (EB, 1910, v. 4, p. 198) “But more important than any group of positions is his effort to orient philosophy towards theology, and theology toward mystical union. Without such an effort, philosophy is merely an outgrowth of worldly curiosity, placing man on ‘the infinite precipice.’ In following the controversies of the thirteenth century it is important to remember that for men such as Bonaventure, the price of philosophical error is not merely confusion; it is also the ultimate disaster of damnation.” (Hyman & Walsh)

Folio 123 (of 124 leaves), lacking the final leaf, blank. ISTC (ig00683000) lists only 2 in the U.S. (San Marino and Washington Library of Congress) The lower corner of the first two leaves of the Postilla are crudely repaired, but not affecting any text. Early ink ownership inscription of the Observantine Friars Minor “Reformat. 1629” (place deleted) on title of the Postilla. Overall, a very good copy. Bound is a very nice modern full calf binding. Rubicated by hand throughout.
Of William of Paris’ Postilla there are “More than one hundred editions of the Postilla super epistolas et evangelia by Guillermus Parisiensis were printed during the fifteenth century. Surely this esteemed compilation must be regarded as one of the earliest “best sellers”, for how else can one explain why the text was not only frequently reprinted but was reissued time and time again by the same printed… Only a few facts seems to be known about Frater Guillermus. The introduction to the Postilla, his only published work, tells us that he was a Dominican and a professor of sacred theology at Paris. This compilation of the Postilla was written down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts for the Epistles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read at appropriate services throughout the church year.

Folio π 2 A-I8, AA, BB8, a-k8, (except H, I, in sixes) complete. The last blank leaf is missing . This copy is bound in eighteenth century quarter calf. There is light damp stain at top margin, few minor wormholes in the beginning, touching a few letters, some thumbing to lower outer corners of first few leaves, small old red ink note to last leaf. There is small bookplate of the former Redemptorist seminary St. Alphonsus in Esopus, NY.

776G

This is the Editio princeps of Hilary of Poitiers’ major theological work, issued with St. Augustine’s work on the same subject. “Hilary was said to be a defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity, and was like his Master in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.”

In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. He was bishop of Poitiers in France. Raised a pagan, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. The heresy spread rapidly. St. Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia (in modern-day Turkey). Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.” While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people. His work on the Trinity is a scriptural confirmation of the philosophic doctrine of the divinity of Christ, and is of permanent value. It was not a mere restatement of traditional orthodoxy, but a fresh and living utterance of his own experience and study. In the discussion of the co-essentiality of the Son, Hilary lays emphasis on the Scripture titles and affirmations, and especially on his birth from the Father, which he insists involves identity of essence. In the elaboration of the divine-human personality of Christ, he is more original and profound. The incarnation was a move of the Logos towards humanity in order to lift humanity up to participation in the divine nature. It consisted in a self-emptying of himself, and the assumption of human nature. In this process he lost none of his divine nature; and, even during the humiliation, he continued to reign everywhere in heaven and on earth. Christ assumed body, soul, and spirit, and passed through all stages of human growth, his body being subject to pain and death. Redemption is the result of Christ’s voluntary substitution of himself, out of love, in our stead. Between the God-man and the believer there is a vital communion. As the Logos is in the Father, by reason of his divine birth, so we are in him, and become partakers of his nature, by regeneration and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.The christology of Hilary is full of fresh and inspiring thoughts, which deserve to be better known than they are.

This copy is bound in a modern binding rubricated in red and green throughout, a very nice large copy.

“This compilation of the Postilla was written down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts from the Epsitles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read at appropriate services throughout the church year. It obviously filled a most pressing need.” (Goff, The Postilla of Guillermus Parisiensis, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1959.) For more information on this book please refer to the summary of a separate edition above, listed as 811G.

This copy is bound in original calf tooled in blind over wooden boards rebacked. Initials, capital strokes, paragraph marks, and underlining in red. Newer endpapers, over partially exposed original endpapers. Some minor worming throughout, mainly marginal. The final few leaves have a few more wormholes within the text, but text remains fully legible. A marginal closed tear to leaf n5, not affecting text. Leaves a bit wrinkled and some minor dampstaining to upper margin at the end. Overall a very good, clean copy.

The Gesta Romanorum is “One of the best known collections of stories in Latin, the Gesta Romanorum is a medieval collection of anecdotes, to which moral reflections are attached. It was compiled in Latin, probably by a priest, late in the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth century. The ascription of authorship to Berchorius or Helinandus can no longer be maintained. The original objective of the work seems to have been to provide preachers with a store of anecdotes with suitable moral applications. Each story has a heading referring to some virtue or vice (e.g. de dilectione); then comes the anecdote followed by the moralisatio. The collection became so popular throughout Western Europe that copies were multiplied, often with local additions, so that it is not now possible to determine whether it was originally written in England, Germany, or France. Oesterley, its latest critical editor (Berlin, 1872), is of the opinion that it was originally composed in England, whence it passed to the Continent, and that by the middle of the fourteenth century there existed three distinct families of manuscripts: the English group, written in Latin; the Latin and German group; and a third group represented by the first printed editions. The manuscripts differ considerably as to number and arrangement of articles, but no one manuscript representing the printed editions exists. Probably the editors of the first printed edition selected stories from various manuscripts.

Shortly after this collection had been published, an enlarged edition, now known as the Vulgate, was issued, containing 181 stories. This was compiled from the third group of manuscripts, and was printed by Ulrich Zell at Cologne. Though the title of the work suggests Roman history as the chief source of the stories, many of them are taken from later Latin and German chronicles, while several are Oriental in character. In estimating the wide influence of the ‘Gesta’ it must be remembered that the collection proved a mine of anecdotes, not only for preachers, but for poets, from Chaucer, Lydgate, and Boccaccio down through Shakespeare to Schiller and Rossetti, so that many of these old stories are now enshrined in masterpieces of European literature.” (CE vol. VI, page 539-540)

“The Stories of the Gesta seem to have been a mine for later writers, like Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Schiller.” (Mediaeval Latin, 1925. p 432).

Octavo, 5 1/4 X 3 1/2 inches . A-R:8. (lacking A1) Bound invery nice modern limp vellum. This work, formerly attributed to Saint Bonaventure and Henri of Beaume (d. 1439), is now considered to be the work of Mediolanensis, a “Franciscan theologian and mystic. Lector of theology of Milan and alleged composer of a Summa Contra Hereticos, against the Kathars of Lombardy. The Stimulus Amoris centered on the love of/for Christ and the imitation of and the passive contemplation and union with God. There is some discussion as to whether Jacobus Capelli (known for the Summa) and Jacob of Milan (the author of the Stimulus Amoris) are one and the same person.” “The Stimulus Amoris is a composite devotional work consisting of an independent series of meditations on the Holy Passion, of still unidentified authorship, followed by a treatise on the spiritual life and contemplation by Jacobus Mediolensis, and ending with some anonymous meditations on the ‘Pater Noster,’ ‘Ave Maria,’ ‘Salve Regina,’ etc.

“The Stimulus appears in several versions, but the one that became very popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is this longer work, known in England as the Prikke of Love. By the fourteenth century one or more scribes had added the chapters on the Passion to the treatise of Jacobus and had vastly amplified that author’s work. Jacobus’ short treatise consisted of twenty-three chapters, in no perceptible order, some of which embodied fragments from St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard, and Saint Anselm. “A few chapters dealt with contemplation, but the great number were rather elaborately worded instructions on the ordinary ascetic life mingled with devotional outpourings, full of the popularized pseudo-Dionysian mystical expressions. Only two of the chapters and a prayer halfway through the work deal with the Passion, and these were later extracted and formed the basis of the first part of the Stimulus. By the end of the fourteenth century the manuscripts show no less than fifteen chapters on the Passion, and an additional one crept in by the time of the first printing by the Brothers of the Common Life in 1476-1478.” (All citations Clare Kirchberger, The Goad of Love)

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This Monday marks the Feast Day of one of the great figures in Franciscan history – St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio – as well as the eighth anniversary of our Franciscan presence in this historic downtown parish. St. Bonaventure is a good model of what it means to be a Franciscan, while at the same time being a priest in leadership positions in a parish. Bonaventure reminded the friars of his day that our first vocation is as “brother.” At the core of our charism, we are a fraternity in mission to the People of God striving to continue our Order’s 800-year-old mission: bringing the Gospel into the everyday experience of men and women through our life in fraternity and compassionate service to all.

John Fisher has been named, though without any real proof, as the true author of the royal treatise against Luther entitled “Assertio septem sacramentorum”First published 1521, Henry VIII’s “Assertio” was written in response to Luther’s “De captivitate babylonica ecclesiae”. It is a vindication of the Church’s dogmatic teaching regarding the sacraments and the Sacrifice of the Mass. Henry’s insistence on the supremacy of the papacy in this work pleased Pope Leo X and earned the King the title “Fidei Defensor ” (Defender of the Faith). Henry was advised in the arrangement of the “Assertio” by Sir Thomas More; and in later years this was the basis of one of the charges against More. This edition also includes Luther’s response to the “Assertio”, entitled “Contra Henricum Regem Anglicum”.Luther attacked Henry VIIILuther’s reply to Henry’s “Assertio” is perhaps one of the most scurrilous pieces of theological polemic on record. It was felt that it would be beneath the dignity of the monarch to engage in further debate with the ribald Luther, and so both Fisher and Sir Thomas More were persuaded to come to his rescue. This resulted in Fisher’s “Defence of the Assertions of the King of England against Luther’s Babylonian Captivity.” The printing of this work was delayed by reports of a possible reconversion of Luther, but when this proved to be unfounded, the book was finally published in Cologne in 1525.18 The “Defensio” was a short book and concentrated on Luther’s denial of the Church’s doctrine on the Eucharist. Simultaneously with the “Defensio,” Fisher published his work on the Catholic priesthood.19 This was in reply to Luther’s “De abroganda Missa privata” (1522) in which he rejected the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass, and denied the institution by Christ of a ministerial priesthood essentially different from that of the common priesthood of the laity.Fisher tells his readers that he will make three rejoinders to Luther’s attacks with which he will “try to sponge away all the filthy and blasphemous things that have proceeded from his mouth against priests,” and then outlines the plan of his argument. Firstly he demonstrates the prescriptive right of existing truth drawn from Tradition. In his second argument he enuntiates a series of axioms, drawn from Sacred Scripture and arranged in due order, which establishes the existence of a visible priesthood. His third argument is a clear and direct rebuttal of Luther’s objections, one by one. In developing his argument for the existence of a visible priesthood from Tradition, the bishop of Rochester shows an extraordinary familiarity with, and knowledge of, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, all the more remarkable in that he must have been working mostly from manuscript copies. After marshalling an astonishing array of patristic testimony he says that “from the unanimity of so many Fathers we may conclude with fullest certainty that the priesthood was instituted not in recent times, but in the very cradle of the Church. Wherefore, since Luther can adduce no orthodox writer who in any book that has ever appeared gives the contrary witness, nor can quote a syllable of Holy Scripture in opposition to the assertions of the Fathers, we lay down with the utmost justice against Luther as a matter of prescriptive right the truth of the priesthood.”20 “How can it be imagined,” Fisher asks not without a certain irony, “that at length for the first time has shone upon Luther the light of a truth that no one of the early Fathers should have so much as suspected, the contrary indeed, of which they have unitedly asserted from the very beginning?”21At the same time Sir Thomas More was writing his reply to Luther’s diatribe under the pseudonym Gulielmus Rosseus. He had obviously read Fisher’s work before he published his own. In his “Responsio ad Lutherum” he writes: “The Reverend Father John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, a man illustrious not only by the vastness of his erudition, but much more so by the purity of his life, has so opened and so overthrown the assertions of Luther, that if he had any shame he would give a great deal to have burnt his assertions.”22Fisher published in 1523 his “Lutheranae Assertionis Confutatio,” in answer to Luther’s challenge to the Pope after he had burned the bull “Exurge Domine” and the books of canon law in Wittenberg as an act of public defiance to papal authority. He writes in defense of the Pope yet with undisguised sadness at the state of things in the Holy See: “If the Roman Pontiffs, laying aside pomp and haughtiness, would but practice humility, you would not have a word left to utter against them. Yes, would that they would reform the manners of their court, and drive from it ambition, avarice and luxury. Never otherwise will they impose silence on revilers such as you.”23Fisher wrote well in defense of the Pope as is evident from the effect his “Confutatio” against Luther had on St. Thomas More. In a letter to Cromwell (1534) More admitted that he had at one time thought the Pope’s supremacy was of merely ecclesiastical and not of divine institution. Yet after reading Fisher’s work he was able to write in his “Responsio”: “As regards the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff, the bishop of Rochester has made the matter so clear from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and from the whole of the Old Testament, and from the consent of all the holy Fathers, not of the Latins only, but of the Greeks also (of whose opposition Luther is wont to boast), and from the definition of a general council . . . that it would be utterly superfluous for me to write again on the subject.”The bulk of the volume consists of Bishop John Fisher’s defense of Henry’s Assertio, written in response to Luther’s own response. “An eminent spiritual figure in the circle around Thomas More, Fisher preceded More to the scaffold; on June 22, 1535, he was executed for refusing to take the oath required of him in the administration of the Act of Succession. [Fisher’s head was on display on London Bridge for two weeks. When it was removed and thrown into the river, it was replaced with More’s own.] On May 19, 1935 Fisher was canonized in Rome with More.” (Contemporaries of Erasmus)In 1525, a strange and inaccurate rumor had been circulating in Europe that the English monarch, Henry VIII, was becoming sympathetic to Lutheran ideas. Luther had insulted Henry in September of 1522, by writing a work that attacked Henry’s defence of the seven sacraments in the “Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martin Lutherum” (1521). The Pope conferred upon Henry the title “Defender of the Faith” for this work and Luther furiously condemned Henry in his “Contra Henricum regem Angliae.” Following Luther’s attack upon the monarch, and the compromise in which the King found himself because protocol denied the right of reply from a monarch to a commoner, Thomas More was asked to write a defence and produced the Renaissance anti-Lutheran polemical work, “Responsio ad Lutherum.” At around the same time (1525), John Fisher produced a series of theological treatises, both bound together in this volume, that critically examined the basic tenets of Lutheranism: “Defensio regie assertionis contra Babylonicam capituitatem” and the “Sacri sacerdotii defensio contra Lutherum.” The first is a defense of Henry VIII against Luther’s attack that qualifies him, according to Fisher in this work, as a philosophic king in the Platonic tradition. The second work, “Sacri sacerdotii defensio contra Lutherum” is a defense of the priesthood by arguments in favor of tradition against innovation and a divine sanction of the priesthood.Fisher, the strongly ascetic, loyal Catholic, whose interest in the classical revival existed alongside an appreciation of the Cabala, is perhaps the best representative of the religion in possession at the very beginning of the English Reformation.

“Shortly after dawn on July 18, 1581, the cry went out: “I have found the traitors!” With a crowbar the false wall at the head of the stairs was torn away, revealing the huddled figures of Edmund Campion and two companions, three priests lately returned to their native England to minister to those resisting the oppression from the new English Church. Their discovery set them upon the path to martyrdom.Edmund Campion was born on January 25, 1540 into an England of religious and social upheaval. Protestantism had usurped the Catholic Church as the spiritual authority; the dissolution of monasteries and the suppression of Catholic beliefs and believers intensified as land-hungry nobles and men of power continued, in the name of the young, sickly Edward VI, the transformation begun by Henry VIII.Campion was 13 and the most promising scholar at Christ’s Hospital school in London when he was chosen to read an address to Mary Tudor upon her arrival in London as queen in 1553. Campion received a scholarship to Oxford at age 15, and, by the time Elizabeth rose to power (“restoring” Protestantism as the national religion) upon Mary’s death in 1558, he was already a junior fellow.At Oxford Campion’s erudition, charisma, and charm gained him noteriety; his students even imitated his mannerisms and style of dress. Queen Elizabeth visited in 1566 and for her entertainment was treated to academic displays. Campion, the star of the show, single-handedly debated four other scholars and so impressed the queen that she promised the patronage of her advisor (and one of the principal architects of the Reformation in England) William Cecil, who referred to Campion as the “diamond of England.”It was the hope of the crown that Campion would become a defender of the new faith which, though favored by the temporal power, lacked learned apologists. Yet even as he was ordained to the Anglican diaconate, he was being swayed toward Rome, influenced in great part by older friends with Catholic sympathies. In 1569 he journeyed to Dublin, where he composed his . At this point Campion was at the summit of his powers. He could have risen to the highest levels of fame had he stayed his course. But this was not to be. By the time Campion left Ireland, he knew he could not remain a Protestant.Campion’s Catholic leanings were well-publicized, and he found the atmosphere hostile upon his return to England in 1571. He went abroad to Douay in France, where he was reconciled with the Church and decided to enter the Society of Jesus. He made a pilgrimmage to Rome and journeyed to Prague, where he lived and taught for six years and in 1578 was ordained a Jesuit priest.In 1580 he was called by superiors to join fellow Jesuit Robert Parsons in leading a mission to England. He accepted the assignment joyfully, but everyone was aware of the dangers. The night before his departure from Prague, one of the Jesuit fathers wrote over Campion’s door, ”

“Campion crossed the English Channel as “Mr. Edmunds,” a jewel dealer. His mission was nearly a short one: At Dover a search was underway for Gabriel Allen, another English Catholic expatriate who was rumored to be returning to England to visit family. Apparently Allen’s description fit Campion also, and he was detained by the mayor of Dover, who planned to send Campion to London. Inexplicably, while waiting for horses for the journey, the mayor changed his mind, and sent “Mr. Edmunds” on his way.Upon reaching London, Campion composed his “Challenge to the Privy Council,” a statement of his mission and an invitation to engage in theological debate (see “Classic Apologetics” in this issue). Copies spread quickly, and several replies to the “Challenge” were published by Protestant writers, who attached to it a derogatory title, “Campion’s Brag,” by which it is best known today.The power and sincerity of the “Brag” is accompanied by a degree of naivete: Campion’s statement of purpose was of no value during his later trial for treason, and the challenge to debate, repeated later in his apologetic work , was as much an invitation to capture. And his capture seemed almost inevitable: Elizabeth had spies everywhere searching for priests, the most sought after of whom being her former “diamond of England.”Campion and his companions traveled stealthily through the English countryside in the early summer of 1581, relying on old, landed Catholic families as hosts. They said Mass, heard confession, performed baptisms and marriages, and preached words of encouragement to a people who represented the last generation to confess the faith of a Catholic England.There were close calls. Many homes had hiding places for priests—some even had secret chapels and confessionals—and the Jesuits had to rely on these more than once. Campion took extraordinary risks, never able to turn down a request to preach or administer the sacraments, and more than once he escaped detection while in a public setting.His fortune changed while visiting the home of Francis Yate in Lyford Grange, which was west of London. Yate was a Catholic imprisoned for his faith who had repeatedly asked for one of the Jesuit fathers to tend to the spiritual needs of his household. Though it was out of the way and the queen’s searchers were reportedly in hot pursuit, Campion was unable to resist the request.He traveled to Lyford, heard confessions, preached well into the night, and departed without difficulty after saying Mass at dawn. Some nuns visiting the home shortly thereafter were upset to hear they had just missed Campion, and so riders were dispatched to pursuade him to return, which he did. Word of his return reached George Eliot, born and regarded as Catholic but in fact a turncoat in the pay of the queen; he had a general commission to hunt down and arrest priests. Eliot arrived at Lyford with David Jenkins, another searcher, and attended a Mass. He was greatly outnumbered by the Catholics, and, fearing resistance, made no move to arrest Campion. He departed abruptly to fetch the local magistrate and a small militia and returned to the Yate property during dinner. News of the approaching party reached the house, and Campion and his two priestly companions were safely squirreled away in a narrow cell prepared especially for that purpose, with food and drink for three days.Later Eliot and Jenkins both claimed to have discovered the priests, offering the same story: A strip of light breaking through a gap in the wall leading to the hiding place was the giveaway—both men took credit for noticing it, and each reported being the one to break through the wall. No doubt each sought the credit for capturing the infamous Campion, for no priest was more beloved by the Catholics nor more despised by the crown.Campion was taken to the Tower and tortured. Several times he was forced to engage in debates, without benefit of notes or references and still weak and disoriented from his rackings and beatings. He acquited himself admirably, all things considered: a testament to his unparalled rhetorical skills.His trial was a farce. Witnesses were bribed, false evidence produced; in truth, the outcome had been determined since his arrival. Campion was eloquent and persuasive to the last, dominating the entire procedure with the force of his logic and his knowledge of the Scripture and law, but in vain. He and his priestly and lay companions were convicted of treason on November 14 and were sentenced to death. His address to the court upon sentencing invoked the Catholic England for which he had fought, the Catholic England which was about to die: “In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors—all the ancient priests, bishops and kings—all that was once the glory of England.”On December 1,1581 the prophecy hanging over his door in Prague was fulfilled: Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The poet Henry Walpole was there, and during the quartering some blood from Campion’s entrails splashed on his coat. Walpole was profoundly changed. He went overseas, took orders, and 13 years later met his own martyrdom on English soil. Campion was beatified by Leo XIII in 1886.” by Todd M. AglialoroCampion

HAWKINS, HENRY (1571?–1646), jesuit, born in London in 1571 or 1575, was second son of Sir Thomas Hawkins, knt., of Nash Court, Kent, by Anne, daughter and heiress of Cyriac Pettit, of Boughton-under-the-Blean, Kent. John Hawkins [q. v.] and Sir Thomas Hawkins [q. v.] were his brothers. After studying classics in the college of the English jesuits at St. Omer, he entered the English College at Rome, under the assumed name of Brooke, on 19 March 1608–9. He received minor orders in 1613, was ordained priest about the same time, and, after spending two years in the study of scholastic theology, left for Belgium and entered the Society of Jesus about 1615. A manuscript ‘status’ of the English College at Rome for 1613 says that he was the ‘son of a cavalier, lord of a castle, a man of mature age, intelligent in affairs of government, very learned in the English laws, and that he had left a wife, office, and many other commodities and expectations, to become a priest in the seminaries.’ Hawkins on coming to England was captured and imprisoned. In 1618 he was sent into perpetual exile with eleven other jesuits, but, like most of his companions, soon returned to this country, where he laboured, principally in the London district, for twenty-five years. He is named among the ‘veterani missionarii’ in the list of jesuits found among the papers seized in 1628 at the residence of the society in Clerkenwell. In his old age he withdrew to the house of the English tertian fathers at Ghent, where he died on 18 Aug. 1646. STC (2nd ed.), 20492Copies – N.America Folger Shakespeare , Huntington Library ,University of Texas

822G John Fisher (saint) 1469-1535.

A treatise of prayer, and of the fruits and manner of prayer. By the most Reuerend Father in God Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochestre, Preist and most eminent Cardinall of the most holy Catholike Church, of the title of S. Vitalis. Translated into English by R.A.B.

Printed at Paris : by Will: Baudry, M. DC. XXXX [1640] $5,500

Duodecimo á A-G H . The fourth edition of Fisher, John. A godlie treatisse declaryng the benefites, fruites, and great commodities of prayer.

This copy has had heavy stainging and chipping repaired. bound in contemporary full calf in need of rebinding.

Written in latin “Tractatus de orando Deum : et de fructibus precum, modo [ue] orandi, numquam antehac Latiné editus”. ; First published in English in 1560/3 as A Godlie treatisse declaryng the benefites, fruites, and great commodities of prayer and also the true vse therof. Written in Latin, fourtie yeres past, by an Englyshe man, of great vertue [and] learnyng. And lately translated into Englyshe. Only one copy in the US at Williams College, then in, 1577 ,no US copies then 1600 only one copy listed St. Mary’s Seminary, New Oscott NO U.S. Copies, and Then this edition Estc shows only folger in the US Oclc adda Catholic University of America. Prayer for Holy Bishops by Saint John Fisher Lord, according to Thy promise that the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world, raise up men fit for such work. The Apostles were but soft and yielding clay till they were baked hard by the fire of the Holy Ghost. So, good Lord, do now in like manner with Thy Church militant, change and make the soft and slippery earth into hard stones. Set in the Thy Church strong and mighty pillars that may suffer and endure great labors–watching, poverty, thirst, hunger, cold and heat–which also shall not fear the threatenings of princes, persecution, neither death, but always persuade and think with themselves to suffer with a good will, slanders, shame, and all kinds of torments, for the glory and laud of Thy Holy Name. By this manner, good Lord, the truth of Thy Gospel shall be preached throughout the world. Therefore, merciful Lord, exercise Thy mercy, show it indeed upon Thy Church. Amen

Jenks was educated at Douai College, where he was professor of philosophy from 1680 to 1686. He was later a preacher in ordinary to James II. At the Revolution of 1688 he fled to Flanders. On his return to England he laboured as a missionary in or near London and was appointed by the chapter Archdeacon of Surrey and Kent.Jenks, Sylvester, bishop-elect of Callipolis in partihtu, He was a Catholic non-juror in 1717. At an early age, Sylvester Jenks was sent to Douay College, where he took the missionary oath, in the name of Medcalfe, Aug. 15, 1675. Lady Yate, of Harvington Hall, Worcestershire, undertook the principal part of the expense of his education. He progressed rapidly in his studies, and, having completed the course of divinity, publicly defended his tlieses on July 12, 1680. Dr. Edward Paston was moderator, and the occasion was honoured with the presence of Guido de Save, bishop of Arras, to whom the young divine dedicated his theses. He was then appointed professor of philosophy in the college. In the meantime he was ordained priest, Sept 23, 1684, and, after teaching philosophy for six years, was sent to England, Sept. 23, 1686.His first mission was Harvington Hall, the seat of his great friend and patroness, Lady Yate, widow of Sir John Yate, of Buckland, co. Bucks, and eldest daughter and co-heiress of Humphrey Packington, Esq. The quiet life which he-enjoyed there, however, was soon exchanged for more active scenes. James II., in his progress through the country, being made acquainted with his abilities, called him up to London, and appointed him one of his preachers in ordinary. It was but for a short time that he held this honorary position, for the revolution of 1688 necessitated his flight, and for some time he resided in Flanders. Subsequently he returned to England, and apparently was stationed in or near London, for he was appointed by the chapter archdeacon of Surrey and Kent In one of his letters he refers to a journey to his native county, Shropshire, which he commenced on June 18, 1706, but it would seem that it was only for a visit to his relatives and friends. His time in London seems to have been much occupied with matters of private controversy, his clear judgment being constantly called in requisition.His abilities and his strictly religious life were so highly appreciated by his brethren that he was proposed by Bishops Giffard and Witham for the vicariate of the northern district, vacant by the death of Bishop James Smith in 1711. In a particular congregation, held Aug. 13, the Propaganda unanimously elected Sylvester Jenks to be vicar-apostolic of the northern district, and the Pope gave his consent on Aug. 22, 1713. On the following Nov. 13, the agent in Rome for the English clergy applied to the Propaganda in congregation for faculties for Monsignor Jenks, Bishop of Callipolis in partibiis, and vicar-apostolic of England. In another particular congregation, held Feb. 4, 1714, it was reported that the arrival of the brief, sent in August, 1713, had not been notified to the Propaganda. It had been sent to the internuncio of Flanders through the Propaganda secretariat. In the congregation held on the following July 3, a letter was laid before the Propaganda, written on April 15, 1714, by Bishops Giffard and Witham, to thank their eminences, the cardinals of the congregation, for the election of Mr. Jenks, whom they had proposed for the northern vicariate. They at the same time mentioned, in excuse for Mr. Jenks, who had not himself written to Propaganda, the circumstance of his having been seriously ill. They added their opinion that it would be wise to defer his consecration until the dissolution of the English Parliament, in order to avoid disturbance.Dodd says that Mr. Jenks, out of humility, was averse to the acceptance of the dignity, though earnestly pressed to it by the internuncio at Brussels. It appears, however, that the illness referred to by Bishops Giffard and Witham proved of a fatal nature, and he died before his consecration, about the beginning of December, 1714, aged 58.He was possessed of singular qualifications, says Dodd, but most especially was he remarkable for the clearness of his conceptions, his well-balanced mind, and the elegance of his language. His theological learning and abilities were most eminent, and his strictly religious life was an example of solid piety and sterling humility. To conclude, his own words may be quoted from the preface to his “Blind Obedience”:—” I keep my name to myself, and my reason is, because I love a quiet life. I ever looked upon it as the greatest blessing which a bad world can afford, and am persuaded that being private is the easiest and securest way of being quiet. Besides, I see no good there is in being talked of, either well or ill. The one is good for nothing but to make a man vain; the other is apt to make him vexed; all to no purpose.”Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. iii. p. 486; Mazicre Brady, Episc. Succession, vol. iii. ; Boiven, God’s Safe Way; Bcnveti, The Lavs, July to Aug. 1872, pp. 30, 36, 59 ; Jenks, Contrite and Hitmbl; Heart.

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I often go for a drive, I like to look at old stuff, antiques, books, buildings,paintings…

And one of my favorite places to drive to is Antique Associates at West Townsend

(473 Main St., W. Townsend, Mass. 01474)

It always has plenty of early modern and medieval antiques to get me thinking about other things than books. Yesterday I saw a Candlestick, Gothic Double Socket, Copper Alloy, Three Kings, Extremely Rare Northwest Europe, Likely Germany or Holland
15th Century (Second half) Good Old Color and Patina .

This scarcely encountered form features a central tapering pricket above coarse screw thread, and a detachable twin-branched arm with tapering sockets. The shaft featuring two discoid (bladed) knops is flared at its base and is neatly peened underneath the domed three-stage base. Excellent condition commensurate with age and use; typical wear, none of which are objectionable. There is a small tight crack along the lower edge of the base. (The height is 13 3/4″.)

Of course I can’t help to think of the books read with the aid of this candle stick… And I am always drawn to Bellarmines! and there are always a nice selection of them there! Stoneware, Face Jug, Gray Beard, Bartmann, Bellarmine
Germany, 17th Century

But while moving from wonderful glass case full of material culture of the period I love to the next case, it was empty….

I thought to myself, I could fix that, I could bring my seventy century wine bottle collection, or my vast collection of Homo Erectus stone artifact collection, or my Woodland American point collection…

A directory for midwives: or, A guide for women in their conception, bearing, and suckling their children. The first part contains, 1. The anatomy of the vessels of generation. 2. The formation of the child in the womb. 3. What hinders conception, and its remedies. 4. What furthers conception. 5. A guide for women in conception. 6. Of miscarriage in women. 7. A guide for women in their labour. 8. A guide for women in their lying-in. 9. Of nursing children. To cure all diseases in women, read the second part of this book. By Nicholas Culpeper, Gent. student in physic and astrology.

London : printed, and are to be sold by most book sellers in London and Westminster, 1700 $5,500

Octavo A-Q12 (complete) Recorded copies: Wellcome only in UK; U.S. National Library of Medicine & Yale only in North America This copy is bound in contemporary full blind stamped calf. A nice copy of a popular and ill-surviving text in contemporary binding.

A Directory of Midwives was first published in 1651 and became one of the seminal texts on midwifery and female health for the next two centuries. This volume contains both of Culpeper’s Directory, which focuses on obstetrics, and a separately titled Fourth Book of Practical Physick, which deals with female diseases and general health.
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JG138F Donne, John. 1571/2-1631

Poems, &c. By John Donne, late Dean of St. Pauls. With Elegies On The Author’s Death. To which is added Divers Copies under his own hand, Never before Printed.

London: In the Savoy, Printed by T.N. for Henry Herringman, 1669 $7,500

Octavo, 4.2 x 6.5 inches. Fifth edition. A4, B-Z8, Aa-Dd8. A1 and Dd8 are both blank and present in this copy. This copy is bound in contemporary full mottled calf. It has been sympathetically rebacked with raised bands and gilt title to spine. This is the last and most complete edition of Donne’s poetry published in the seventeenth century, and the only Restoration printing. Many textual changes were made in this edition, and five new poems were added, including “To His Mistress Going to Bed,” and “O My America! My New-found-land.”
“The poetry of Donne represents a sharp break with that written by his predecessors and most of his contemporaries. Donne’s poetry, is written very largely in conceits— concentrated images which involve an element of dramatic contrast, of strain, or of intellectual difficulty. Donne, not only displays his own ingenuity; he may see into the nature of the world as deeply as the philosopher. Donne’s conceits in particular leap continually in a restless orbit from the personal to the cosmic and back again.”
Wing D-1871; Keynes 84; Wither to Prior 291. 1:2

JG665G Ben Jonson ca. 1572-1637

The Works of Ben Jonson, which were formerly Printed in Two Volumes, are now Reprinted in One, to which is added a Comedy, called the New Inn, with Additions never before Published.

London Thomas Hodgkin, 1692 $7,500

Folio, 14 x 9 inches. This is the first complete single volume edition, and last of the folio editions, of Ben Jonson’s works. It is truly complete, containing all the masques; epigrams; plays; verse letters and panegyrics; sonnets; the English Grammar; Timber, or Discoveries; and the translation of Horace’s de Arte Poetica. The New Inne is included in this collected edition for the first time.

“Jonson’s life was tough and turbulent. After his father’s early death, Ben was adopted in infancy by a bricklayer and educated by the great classical scholar and antiquarian William Camden, before necessity drove him to enter the army. In Flanders, where the Dutch with English help were warring against the Spaniards, he fought single-handed with one of the enemy before the massed armies, and killed his man. Returning to England about 1595, he began to work as an actor and playwright but was drawn from one storm center to another. He killed a fellow actor in a duel, and escaped the gallows only by pleading ‘benefit of the clergy’ (i.e., by proving he could read and write, which entitled him to plead before a more lenient court). He was jailed for insulting the Scottish nation at a time when King James was newly arrived from Scotland. He took furious part in an intricate set of literary wars with his fellow playwrights.

Yet he rode out all these troubles, growing mellower as he grew older, and in his latter years became the unofficial literary dictator of London, the king’s pensioned poet, a favorite around the court, and the good friend of men like Shakespeare, Donne, Francis Beaumont, John Selden, Francis Bacon, dukes, diplomats, and distinguished folk generally. In addition, he engaged the affection of younger men (poets like Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, and Sir John Suckling, speculative thinkers like Lord Falkland and Sir Kenelm Digby), who delighted to christen themselves ‘sons of Ben.’

Folio . First and only edition. This copy is bound in its original velum binding. There are many illustrations in this book: an extra engraved title page, one hundred and sixty text woodcuts, and ten text engravings, some of which are very large. These illustrations all depict scientific instruments and experiments. This is a very good copy bound in marbled sheep with a gilt spine

“Thus in the most varied branches of science Kircher played the role of pioneer. Even medicine
received his attention. His scientific activities brought him into correspondence with scholars laboring in the most different fields, as the numerous volumes of his extant letters show. It is to his inventive mind that we owe one of the earliest of our counting machines: the speaking-tube and æolian harp were perfected by him. He was also the inventor of the magic lantern [depicted in this volume] which has since been brought to such perfection and is today almost indispensable. [All of Kircher’s inventions are illustrated in the present work, including three different depictions of magic lanterns.]”
“This work, edited by one of Kircher’s pupils, J. S. Kestler, is a codification of Kircher’s observations and experiments across the entire spectrum of his researches in physics. Naturally there are large sections on light and shadow, magnetism, acoustics, and music; but there are also experiments and observations in hydraulics, alchemy, and a myriad of other topics. This compendium was perhaps a response to entreaties from Kircher’s fellow scientists, who appreciated his keen observations and experiments but did not care to wade through some forty volumes to glean them. The book is an example of what Kircher’s writings could have been like at the hands of a good editor.
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Folio 123 (of 124 leaves), lacking the final leaf, blank. ISTC (ig00683000) lists only 2 in the U.S. (San Marino and Washington Library of Congress) The Lower corner of the first two leaves of the Postilla crudely repaired, not affecting text. Early ink ownership inscription of the Observantine Friars Minor “Reformat. 1629” (place deleted) on title of the Postilla. Overall, a very good copy. Bound is a very nice modern full calf binding. Rubicated by hand throughout.

Of William of Paris’ Postilla there are “More than one hundred editions of the Postilla super epistolas et evangelia by Guillermus Parisiensis were printed during the fifteenth century. Surely this esteemed compilation must be regarded as one of the earliest “best sellers”, for how else can one explain why the text was not only frequently reprinted but was reissued time and time again by the same printed… Only a few facts seems to be known about Frater Guillermus. The introduction to the Postilla, his only published work, tells us that he was a Dominican and a professor of sacred theology at Paris. This compilation of the Postilla was written down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts for the Epistles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read at appropriate services throughout the church year. 2

JG722F Francis Bacon 1561-1626

The essays or counsels, civil and moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St Alban. With a table of the colours of good & evil. Whereunto is added the wisdom of the antients. Enlarged by the honourable author himself; and now more exactly published.

London: Printed by M. Clark, for Samuel Mearne, in Little Britain, John Martyn, in St. Pauls Church-yard, and Henry Herringman, in the New Exchange, 1680. $900

“[Bacon’s] Essays, the fruits of his political and social observations, were first published in 1597, enlarged in 1612, and again in 1625. His long attempt to reform the intellectual habits of the European mind began with the publication of The Advancement of Learning in 1605, which attacked the unprofitable scholasticism that inhibited the growth of knowledge and the mental prejudices that helped to keep men in ignorance. Above all he deplored the poor and confused state of knowledge about the operations of the natural world. Novum Organum, begun about 1608, published 1620, called for a systematic study of the natural world and of the causes of things, and proposed the inductive method as the most reliable instruments of enquiry. Bacon worked out the principles of the experimental method in this book, and developed them in De Augmentis, 1623. Sylva Sylvarum, a proposal of 1,000 experiments to be undertaken, was published posthumously in 1627, together with New Atlantis, a Utopian fragment written about 1617 that urged the foundation of a college for scientific research. A short book that enjoyed much popularity in his lifetime was De Sapientia Veterum, 1609 (translated as The Wisdom of the Ancients, 1619), which tried to demonstrate that the myths of the Greeks were coded accounts of their knowledge of the physical world.” (Quoted from The Seventeenth Century, by Graham Perry, pages 264-265.)

Poems, On several occasions: with Valentinian: a tragedy. Written by the right honourable John late Earl of Rochester.

London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1705 $4,500

Octavo. The third edition of the authentic works. This copy is bounds in modern panneled calf,in a early eighteenth style. It has the lighter than usual age spotting through out a very nice copy.

During Rochester’s lifetime only a few of his writings were printed as broadsides or in miscellanies, but many of his works were known widely from manuscript copies, a considerable number of which seem to have existed.

“[Wilmot] is one of these English poets who deserve to be called ‘great’ as daring and original explorers of reality; his place is with such memorable spiritual adventurers as Marlowe, Blake, Byron, Wilfred Owen and D. H. Lawrence. Like Byron and Lawrence, he was denounced as licentious, because he was a devastating critic of conventional morality. Alone among the English poets of his day, he perceived the full significance of the intellectual and spiritual crisis of that age. His poetry expresses individual experience in a way that no other poetry does till the time of Blake. It makes us feel what it was like to live in a world which had been suddenly transformed by the scientists into a vast machine governed by mathematical laws, where God has become a remote first cause and man an insignificant ‘reas’ning Engine.’ [See ‘A Satyr Against Mankind] In his time there was beginning the great Augustan attempt to found a new orthodoxy on the Cartesian-Newtonian world-picture, a civilized city of good taste, common sense and reason. Rochester’s achievement was to reject this new orthodoxy at the very outset. He made three attempts to solve the problem of man’s position in the new mathematical universe. The first was the adoption of the ideal of the purely aesthetic hero, the ‘Strephon’ of his lyrics and the brilliant and fascinating Dorimant of Etherege’s comedy. It was a purely selfish ideal of the ethical hero, the disillusioned and penetrating observer of the satires. This ideal was related to truth, but its relationship was purely negative. The third was the ideal of the religious hero, who bore a positive relation to truth. This was the hero who rejected the ‘Fools-Coat’ of the world and lived by an absolute passion for reality. In his short life Rochester may be said to have anticipated the Augustan Age and the Romantic Movement and passed beyond both. In the history of English thought his poetry is an event of the highest significance.
JG179G Giovanni Paolo Lancellotti

Quarto This copy is bound in full original vellum, there is some water damage to the bottom of the pages but not effecting the text.

The Corpus Juris Canonici, Is the Corpus of Canon Law,a set of six compilations of law in the Roman Catholic Church that provided the chief source of ecclesiastical legislation from the Middle Ages until it was superseded in 1917.

The Corpus includes four official collections: I the Decretum Gratiani (“Decree of Gratian”), written between 1141 and 1150; II the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX (1234); III the Liber Sextus (“Book Six”) of Pope Boniface VIII (1298);IV and the Clementinae of Pope Clement V (1317) This edition has a General Index and commentary, Institutiones by Paul Lancellotto and a another Index of the Septimus Decretalium.

A very solid copy of the foundations of modern law!

JG682G Dufresnoy, Charles-Alphonse. 1611-1688

De arte graphica. The art of painting, by C.A. Du Fresnoy. With remarks. Translated into English, together with an original preface containing a parallel betwixt painting and poetry. As also a short account of the most eminent painters, both ancient and modern, continu’d down to the present times, according to the order of their succession. By another hand.

London : W. Rogers, at the Sun against St. Dunstan’s church in Fleetstreet, 1695 $2,200

Quarto This copy is the first edition of the text in English translation This copy is bound in contemporary paneled calf it is a very clean large copy.

Dufresnoy was a working artist who established himself within a circle of peers that included Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and, close friend, Pierre Mignard who spent several years with him in Italy.
Dufresnoy was before all things a critic, and his best known work is not a painting, but a book, “De Arte Graphica”, a manual written in extremely elegant Latin verse…and reprinted for a hundred years as a masterpiece”. The academic and creative impact Dufresnoy’s book had was great; his influence reverberated across the artistic community.
Lowndes describes the book as “a work of established reputation” and the text itself includes Dufresnoy’s explanation of the art of painting. Examples of some topics covered include “The motions of the hands and head must agree”, “The conduct of the tones of Light and Shadows”, “The reflection of colours”, “Things which are vicious in painting to be avoided”. There is also an interesting account of “the most eminent painters, both ancient and modern” by his personal judgement (includes articles on Vouet, Caravaggio, his hero, Titian, and others).
“Painting and Poetry are two Sisters, which are so like in all things, that they mutually lend to each other both their Name and Office. One is call’d a dumb Poesy, and the other a speaking Picture” (from pg. 3 of “De Arte Graphica”). Dufresnoy and Dryden helped assure this filial association between the two popular arts of painting and poetry. This text laid the groundwork for Jonathan Richardson’s seminal “Essay on the Theory of Painting” published in 1715 – a work that has been hailed as the “starting point for the classical school of art criticism in Britain” and the study of aesthetics. “ (Prince, “Aesthetics: Sources in the Eighteenth Century”).

Bologna: Presso gli heredi di Euangelista Dozza, 1648, 1663 $12,000
Quarto: 3 volumes: each measures: 22 x 16 cm. I. [†]4, ††4, a-h4, i6, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Hhh4. II. A6, B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Yyy4. III. π4, a-c4, d6, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Vvv4, Xxx6
“FOURTH” EDITION (1st ed. 1550) and the “THIRD” ILLUSTRATED EDITION (1st 1568) of Vasari’s “Lives”. This edition has presented a puzzle to bibliographers. The first volume is dated 1648, the other two 1663, and many copies of this “mixed date” edition are known. It would appear that the publishers reprinted the 2nd and 3rd volumes in 1663 and used unsold copies of the first volume of the edition of 1648. See Olschki, “Choix de Livres Anciens,” Vol. X, 15790 (the 1648 ed.) and 15791 (the present mixed-date edition.)
A nice set with good margins, bound in three uniform bindings of 18th century tanned sheepskin, the spines gold-ruled in compartments and with black and citron lettering pieces. These are very good copies with occasional light toning, more to the final, un-illustrated volume, and one browned signature. The three volumes are illustrated throughout with the well-known woodcut portraits of the artists set within ornate frames. For his 1647 edition the editor, Carlo Monalessi, acquired the original woodblocks used for the 1568 edition, and had several new portraits added. This edition also includes all of the portraits.

“Giorgio Vasari invented Renaissance art. In 1550, he published a collection of one hundred and forty-two biographies, his ‘Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors from Cimabue to our Times’, and defined a period of artistic activity spanning nearly three hundred years in terms of rebirth (rinascità) and progress. He gave the history of the visual arts in Italy a determined course as they advanced towards the perfection of his own day through the contributions of individual artists. He turned a fragmentary discussion and appreciation into a coherent and forceful representation of achievement that has endured since his time. Scattered notices, dim memories, direct encounters, rumor, gossip, anecdote, and experience were structured and transformed by association with exemplary notions of behavior and shaped by a vision of
JG712G Giorgio Vasari, (1511-1574) stylistic development and historical continuity. “Vasari organized the lives in his book into three parts, or ages, roughly corresponding to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, each defined by their distinctive
character. He dated the initial stages of the rebirth or recovery of the lost attainments of antiquity to around 1240, when Giovanni Cimabue was born to kindle ‘the first lights of painting’. He regarded the arts to be in their infancy in this era, and traced the artists’ faltering steps towards the perfection of later years. For Vasari the means of arriving at perfection lay in the mastery of the principles and models offered by ancient art: a correct understanding of the architectural orders and the imitation of the poses, proportions, and dramatic possibilities of ancient sculpture. To these were added the naturalistic rendering of light with harmoniously blended colors and chiaroscuro modeling in painting, and above all, in all the arts, in ‘disegno’ –the command of idealized form that resulted from manual dexterity (drawing) and an intellectual perception of beauty (design). In the first era painters and sculptors are described as valiantly, if crudely, overthrowing the stiff, course, and clumsy figures of the style Vasari labeled as Greek, achieving more lifelike poses and expression in their figures. Architects are valued for building with more order, beginning to improve from what Vasari called the German manner, which had prevailed since the invasion of the Roman Empire and the destruction of its monuments. In the second era, Vasari shows how the prime goal of art –the imitation of nature- is nearly attained as a result of the successive technical discoveries made by the artists of that time through their diligence and study. These included the rediscovery of the measures, proportions, and ornaments of ancient architecture, and the mastery of anatomy and perspective. This era of technical advance is followed by Vasari’s modern age, when, in various ways, artists bring those techniques to their highest realization. They do so on the basis of their immediate past and the recovery and full comprehension of a distinguished repertory of classical models. With this comes the ability to surpass previous accomplishments, going beyond the rules with new and graceful inventions. The conquest of nature is complete. The palm of victory is granted to Michelangelo –the culminating figure of the ‘Lives’.”… “[Vasari’s] sources in both writing and painting were absorbed and transformed into new expressive forms, whether on palace walls or in artists’ lives. Both were meant to charm and please, to be varied and lifelike. They were true to nature but not idealized. Both were modern. The book was more original. Nothing like it had existed before. Literary friends could offer suggestions, but no plan or scheme or program. The ‘Lives’ are Vasari’s own, and probably greatest invention.” (Patricia Lee Rubin, Giorgio Vasari: Art and History)

Octavo 6 1/2 X 4 inches a8,A7 (stub before a1, NO lacuna) B-R8,S4 First and only edition Bound in early if not original paper boards, a very nice clean copy with deckel edges.

Octavius JANKOVI Spader (Octavius Spader Jadertinus) {Probably not a household name} was a Franciscan philosophical and theological writer. After schooling in Zadar joined the order of the Franciscans opservanata the Province of St. Jerome. He was a teacher in some Franciscan schools in Dalmatia. Rab bishop appointed him Archbishop of Bologna. Spader is the author of philosophical works in several volumes which remained in manuscript, Bibliotheca Scotistarum (written in Cremona, 1667) and stored in the library and archives of the Franciscan monastery in Zadar. Jankovic Spader remained as teacher teaching the positions and the philosophical interpretation of peripatetic natural philosophy, following the philosophical and theological learning D. Scotus in the spirit post tridentske Catholic renewal. In some parts of the Bibliotheca Scotistanim (in 4 parts, Scotus philosophus still Aristotelicae Philosophiae ad mentem Scoti …; Syntagma, Habitus intellectualise lucida contemplatio pleniscolastica discretion Scotistis PROPOSITO; Theatre philosophic orehestra Mathematica; one part without specific title) and works that have remained in manuscripts in the monastery in Kotor and the Franciscan monastery in Zadar, according to the philosophical curriculum kvadrivija he breaks down issues many disciplinary areas (logic, physics, metaphysics, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music, morality) – questions macrocosm and microcosm, materials, forms, causes , movement, time, soul, will, intellect, etc. (Universal Philosophiae substantia, 1665; Medicinae pars secunda, Postilla).

Octavo 6 1/2 X 4 inches A-K8, L7 (lacking final blank) First edition This copy is bound in full antique style calf, a very nice binding.

This text seems to be in Otto, E. Thesaurus juris romani, v. 2.Basileae : Impensis Joh. Ludovici Brandmulleri, 1741-1744, Which you have two copies of, but maybe this is different? The true book (1576 printing seems very rare and not available electronically) Elenus, is asls listed as an added author on Lancelotti’s Institutionum iuris canonici libri IIII : qui dilucido ordine, atque magna facilitate ad vniuersum ius pontificium expeditissimum aditum parant Robbins Rare KJA1082.2 1566 Elenus: Jerome E. . (Elen or Eelen), Dutch lawyer, philologist and methodologists, born probably around 1520-25 to Baelen in Kempen, died at Antwerp in 1576 His father, Andrew Elen., is praised by him as a capable grammarian; he gave his son his first lessons. Jerome went afterwards to Louvain, where Rescius in Greek and Nannius taught in Latin, and where he studied philosophy with special affection; he belonged to the Pädagogium Castrum, and was issued a MA in 1542. In addition, he studied Law, but seems to have satisfied it with the Licence. Mudäus had then held the chair of institutions, and through him the reformed law was introduced to the old Brabant College; Then he went to Orleans, where he worked with Joachim Hopper joined a close bond of friendship. From there they both went to Paris; Elen. heard here the lectures of the then famous John Straselius (from Strazeele at Bailleul), the Demosthenes interpretirte among others. Back in Leuven, Elen He taught lessons in philology and in the jurisprudence. During the latter part of his life he worked in Antwerp as a lawyer. It was here that he wrote his notes on Institutiones Juris Canonici of the Lancelotti, Antwerp in 1566, and This book the “Diatribarum immersive Exercitationum ad jus civile”, Antwerp, Plantin 1576; This work is included in Otto’s Thesaurus Vol II The first book contains an interesting methodological writing, “Orationes tres de ratione juris studii”; the second number of smaller treatises on various points and issues of the Roman law; the third a rhythmic Paraphrasirung of all the fragments of the title De regulis Juris. – These documents are written in Leuven; Elen. referred to themselves as “non si magni momenti, indignas saltem, quae a tineis et Blattis corroderentur”. Therefore, he decided to collect them and publish. – The little work is dedicated (1574) has been the Brussels Ammann Anton van Oss, Lord of Over-and Nederembeek, Castellan of Vilvoorde, a famous man, the mayor of Brussels and head of the local Spanish party; he was Elenus’ youth comrade and whose father had been his teacher. Voet Plantin Nr. 1121

3) 250G John Maulden 1644-1714 A threefold dialogue, concerning the three chief points in controversy amo[ng] Protestants in our days. Viz. I. Whether the holy scriptures do prove the doctrine of free grace, or free will? II. Whether believers, or infant-baptism, be the ordinance of Christ? III. Whether the seventh, or first day of the week, be the sabbath of the Lord? Deliver’d in a familiar stile, easy for each capacity to understand. By Philotheos London : [s.n.], printed in the year 1708. 1950 Octavo 6 1/4 X 4 inches A-F12 First and only edition Bound in full early sheep. It is a good copy with deckel edges. No copy in the Us only two copies in the UK, All three of Maulden’s books are quite rare, none are represented outside of England.

4) 700G Francis F.G. = Gregory 1625?-1707 O (Onomastikon brachy) sive. Nomenclatura brevis Anglo-Latino-Græca. In usum scholæ Westmonasteriensis. Per F.G. Editio duodecima emendata. Together with Examples of the five declensions of nouns; with the words in propria quæ maribus and quæ genus reduced to each declension
London : printed by J. Macock, for Richard Royston, book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty 1672 2200 Octavo 6 3/4 X 4 1/2 inches A-E8 This copy is bound in full original sheep cords worn spine torn but sewing and binding still holding! Gregory, born about 1625, was a native of Woodstock, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Westminster under Busby, who, as he afterwards said, was not only a master but a father to him, and in 1641 was elected to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating M.A. in 1648. He returned to Westminster School as usher till he was appointed head-master of the grammar school at Woodstock. He was a successful teacher, and numbered among his pupils several sons of noble families. An ardent royalist he was chosen to preach the thanksgiving sermon for the Restoration at St. Mary’s, Oxford, 27 May 1660, and afterwards published it under the title of ‘David’s Return from Banishment.’ He also published ‘Votivum Carolo, or a Welcome to his sacred Majesty Charles II from the Master and Scholars of Woodstock School,’ a volume of English and Latin verses composed by Gregory and his pupils. Shortly afterwards he became head-master of a newly founded school at Witney, Oxfordshire, and 22 Sept. 1661 he was incorporated D.D. of Oxford University from St. Mary Hall. He was appointed a chaplain to the king, and in 1671 was presented by Earl Rivers to the living of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. He. kept this post till his death in 1707. He was buried in the church, where a tablet was erected to his memory.
This book consists of Parallel vocabulary : Then Examples of the five declensions of nouns; followed by Examples of Adjectives.

This copy is bound in a modern binding rubricated in green and red throughout, a very nice large copy.

“This compilation of the Postilla was written down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts from the Epsitles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read at appropriate services throughout the church year. It obviously filled a most pressing need” Goff, The Postilla of Guillermus Parisiensis, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 1959.

1 (only one other copy Listed in the US)

642G Athanasius Kircher 1602-1680 R.P. Athanasii Kircheri e societate jesu Itinerarium Exstaticum, quo mundi opificium, id est: Coelestis expansi, fiderumque tam errantium, quam sixorum natura, vires, proprietates, singulorumque compositio & structura, ab infimo Telluris globo, usque ad ultima Mundi confinia, per ficti ratus integumentum explorata, nova hypothesi exponitur ad veritatem
[Bound with ]R.P. Athanasii Kircheri E Societate Jesu Iter Exstaticum II. Qui & Mundi subterranei prodromus dicitu. Trnava (Zapadoslovensky kraj, Slovakia): Fridericum Gall, 1729 $2,500 Duodecimo 5.1 x 3.1 in π, A-Z12; Aa-Bb12, Cc7; A-D12, E5 This copy is bound in full contemporary calf, slightly wormed and bumped, with an elaborately blind-tooled spine and inlaid title. Overall, a very good copy with clean leaves of a rare edition of an important work. This is a very rare edition of Kircher’s Iter Exstaticum. OCLC records no copies of this edition and only the Stanford copy could be located world-wide. Sommervogel’s entry for this edition states that this work is a total of 468 pages, but the copy they examined probably lacked the second part, with continuous pagination to 604 as well as the seperately paginated “Dialogus III” (106 pgs.) both present in this copy.
The first part of this two part work tells of an imaginary astronomical journey made by our author. “The Itinerarium Exstaticum is one of Kircher’s most curious works. He wrote the treatise in the form of a narrative in which a certain Theodidactus —Kircher himself— is caught up in a dream-vision or an ecstatic journey and is guided through the heavens by a spirit named Cosmiel. The genre was not uncommon: the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero and Kepler’s Somnium, published posthumously in 1634, both recount dream-journeys to the moon. In the first dialogue Kircher recounts the journey to the moon, which he finds scarred with mountains and craters, contrary to the Aristotelian view. He flies on to Venus, which he discovers is made of the four elements, and so on to each of the other planets and through the region of the fixed stars. The sun itself has blemishes, Kircher proclaims. He himself had seen sunspots through a telescope several years earlier [which are depicted in one of the engravings.]” (Merrill) Kircher also mentions the rings around Jupiter, the pluralirty of inhabited worlds, and in one plate depicts six possible planetary systems.
The second part of Kircher’s imaginary journey takes him to the underground world, and serves as an outline of the theories developed five years later in his Mundus Subterraneus. This work presents a unified theory of the dynamics of the earth, its rivers, oceans, mountains and volcanoes.
“Having journeyed through the heavens with the angel Cosmiel, Theodidactus descends with a second guide, Hydriel, and examines the waters and their natures. Cosmiel then returns and shows him the land, its geography, its characteristics, and wonders. The dialogue also treats animals and plants and their generation and corruption. In the third dialogue they explore the wonders of the submarine world, and in the fourth the subterranean world.” (Merrill) Sommervogel IV 1056

2) 766G Johannes Nider (1380-1438)

TRACTAT[US] UTILIS DE SEPTEM PECCATIS MORTALIBUS.

[Paris]: Denis Roce, 1500. [ca. 1499-1509] $SOLD
Small octavo. [12] ff. ([a]8-b1) including illustrated title page. This copy is bound in antique-style full calf, stamped in blind, gilt spine title. Mild dampstain in lower gutter, faint dampstain in outer margins of first few leaves.
This is a are treatise on the seven deadly sins, attributed by some to Johannes Nider (ca. 1380-1438), Dominican priest and author of FORMICARIUS (1435- 37), one of the most influential and earliest printed books discussing witchcraft.
The brief, pocket-sized work, likely to be have been kept on one’s person as a “useful” guide, enumerates and contemplates the seven deadly sins – here, “gula” (gluttony), “luxuria” (lust), “avaritia” (avarice), “superbia” (pride), “invidia” (envy), “ira” (wrath), and “accidia” (i.e. acedia).
Acedia, a spiritual listlessness associated with distraction, apathy, and resentment, was the famous “noonday Demon” of St. John Cassian and a topic discussed by many fellow Desert Fathers; it concludes and occupies the largest portion of the work. The term acedia was used first used in Christianity by monks and other ascetics who lived solitary lives, and were tempted to become listless and inert, or begin longing to be elsewhere or to do something other than what they were doing. Evagrius numbers acedia as of the eight bad thoughts, and St. Thomas Aquinas (following Gregory the Great) numbers it as one of the seven capital vices (so-called because they are the source of many kinds of sin). Though related to depression, acedia is not considered entirely the same in the monastic and Christian tradition. It is usually seen as naming a fault, which is subject to one’s will, rather than simply a psychological state. Acedia is to spiritual health something like what depression is to mental health.
The title page bears the pictorial metalcut publisher’s device of French printer and bookseller Denis Roce with the motto, “ALAVENTURE TOUT VIENT APONIT [sic] QUI PEUT ATENDRE.” The mark (Polain 162, Renouard 1005, Silvestre 451) was in use during the 1490s and first decade of the 1500s; Polain notes that the plate remained intact until about 1509.
Not in Goff or Adams or BM STC Fr.

3) 305G Cha. (Charles) Buchanan b. 1660 or 61

The Nature and Design of Holy Days.

London: printed by W. B. for Richard Sare, at Grays-Inn-Gate, in Holborn, 1705. $2,200 Octavo A-I4/8/K3 +19 Full page engravings. First Edition Bound in full contemporary calfskin, leather cracked at front joint, some missing leather pieces, largely intact, contents with some browning along the gutters, some leaves becoming loose, endleaves with old tape, contemporary annotations. And Price on title page: Price 6d stitch’d, or 8d Bound. This book is not only rare but it is probably unique, with the illustrations, the Estc lists the book as anonmyous, yet is is undoubtedly but Charles Buchanan. ESTC makes no mention of frontispiece or illustrations.
Three editions listed in ESTC, the first and third editions each only show one U.S. library location: the Houghton Library, the second edition has no North American holdings, see ESTC T170660.

4) 525G Rainaldi Corsi (Corsetus)1525-1582 Rainaldi Corsi lectissimi Ivreconsvlti Indagationvm Ivris Libri III :Cum indice. Venetijs : apud Io. Andream Valuassorem,1568 $2,400 Octavo 4 X 6 inches A-L8 First and only edition This copy is bound in its original limp vellum binding, with the book plate of Los Angeles Law Library. It is a very nice copy.
Scholar, lawyer, judge, and finally bishop, eclectic and prolific intellectual, he took the risk of publishing books of grammar, poetry, music, theater, painting aesthetics but also in technical and legal texts, such as a treaty of agricultural hydraulics, an “order” of cadastre and sewers, a history of St. Quirinus , a treatise on dance, translations of Virgil, biographies of local characters and more.

Elected judge and prior of the College of Notaries of Correggio, in 1555, the other work that made him famous, Delle private reconciliations, a manual unprecedented value is on the killings, which analyzes the reasons for the dispute and indicate the paths of reconciliation: a text that had repeated editions, including one in Latin, and dedicate it to Pope Pius IV.

A few years later, though, and she left him again, and forever, while he was in the service of Cardinal Girolamo da Correggio in Rome – where he will then some romantic relationships that will give two children: Hercules (recognized in 1580, when is already bishop in Calabria) and Plautilla.

In 1567, when Rinaldo was in Ancona, Lombardi was killed in Fabbrico and it was suspected that the murder was arranged by her husband: he rejected the accusation sull’amante the woman, but there were not enough elements for a charge formal or the other, and the murder remained unpunished.

Shortly thereafter (1568), Corsi, took vows and assumed increasingly senior ecclesiastical roles : apostolic inquisitor, consultor of the Inquisition, examiner and judge Synod of the referendum Shelf until August 1579, when he was appointed bishop of Stroud.

He died between 1580 and 1582 – the absence of a date certain, the period is derived from deeds and administrative – and was buried in the sacristy of the cathedral. First Published in 1563, I could find no copies of this exact edition, it is now available (to the best of my searching) on line or microfilm.

2 (only two other copies Listed in the US)

Folio 123 (of 124 leaves), lacking the final leaf, blank. ISTC (ig00683000) lists 28 copies worldwide; only 2 in the U.S. (San Marino and Washington Library of Congress) Lower corner of the first two leaves of the Postilla crudely repaired, not affecting text. Lower corner of the first two leaves of the Postilla crudely repaired, not affecting text. Early ink ownership inscription of the Observantine Friars Minor “Reformat. 1629” (place deleted) on title of the Postilla. Overall, a very good copy. William of Paris’Postilla: “More than one hundred editions of the Postilla super epistolas et evangelia by Guillermus Parisiensis were printed during the fifteenth century. Surely this esteemed compilation must be regarded as one of the earliest “best sellers”, for how else can one explain why the text was not only frequently reprinted but was reissued time and time again by the same printed… Only a few facts seems to be known about Frater Guillermus. The introduction to the Postilla, his only published work, tells us that he was a Dominican and a professor of sacred theology at Paris. This compilation of the Postilla was writ
ten down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts for the Epistles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read a
t appropriate services throughout the church year. It obviously filled a most pressing need.” (Goff, “The Postilla of Guillermus Parisiensis”, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1959, p. 73)

London:Printed by I[ohn] B[eale] for Iames Boler, and are to be sold at the signe of the Marigold in Pauls Churchyard 1631 $2,900 Octavo 5 1/4 X 3 1/4 inches A12,B5{ lacking b6 Blank}. First edition This copy is bound in calf boards rebacked. Gurney was son of Henry Gurney of West Barsham and Ellingham, Norfolk, by his wife Ellen, daughter of John Blennerhasset of Barsham, Suffolk. He matriculated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, on 30 October 1594, and graduated B.A. in 1600. He was elected Norfolk fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1601, proceeded to M.A. in 1602, and B.D. in 1609. In 1607 he was suspended from his fellowship for not being in orders, but was reinstated by the vice-chancellor.

In 1614 he left Cambridge, on being presented to the rectory of Edgefield, Norfolk, which he held till 1620, when he received that of Harpley, Norfolk. Gurney was inclined to puritanism, as appears from his writings. On one occasion he was cited to appear before the bishop for not using a surplice, and on being told he was expected to always wear it, ‘came home, and rode a journey with it on.’ He further made his citation the occasion for publishing his tract vindicating the Second Commandment.

Thomas Fuller, who was personally acquainted with him, says: ‘He was an excellent scholar, could be humourous, and would be serious as he was himself disposed. His humours were never prophane towards God or injurious towards his neighbours.’ Gurney died in 1648, and was buried at St. Peter’s Mancroft, Norwich, on 14 May in that year. His successor at Harpley was instituted on the following day. It is therefore plain that Gurney conformed to the covenant, and that the Dr. Gurney whom Walker mentions as a sequestered clergyman living in 1650 was another person. Gurney was married, and apparently had a son called Protestant (d. 1624—monument at Harpley). DNB STC (2nd ed.), 12529 [Stationer’s Register: Entered 29 January [1631.]
Copies – N.America :
Folger Shakespeare
Huntington Library and Art Gallery

Fuller’s Worthies, p. 258, ed. 1652

792G Nicholas Culpeper 1616-1654 A directory for midwives: or, A guide for women in their conception, bearing, and suckling their children. The first part contains, 1. The anatomy of the vessels of generation. 2. The formation of the child in the womb. 3. What hinders conception, and its remedies. 4. What furthers conception. 5. A guide for women in conception. 6. Of miscarriage in women. 7. A guide for women in their labour. 8. A guide for women in their lying-in. 9. Of nursing children. To cure all diseases in women, read the second part of this book. By Nicholas Culpeper, Gent. student in physic and astrology.

London : printed, and are to be sold by most book sellers in London and Westminster, 1700
$5,500

Octavo A-Q12 Newly corrected from many gross errors. ESTC R232056, Wellcome only in UK; U.S. National Library of Medicine & Yale only in North America; Copac adds Edinburgh and York Universities; OCLC adds University of Essex Contemp. full blind stamped calf; slightly rubbed. A nice copy of a popular and ill-surviving text in contemporary binding. Sl. dusted, worming to lower gutter of gathering M slightly touching text.

A Directory of Midwives was first published in 1651 and became one of the seminal texts on midwifery and female health for the next two centuries. This volume contains – with continuous pagination – both Culpeper’s Directory, which focuses on obstetrics, and a separately titled Fourth Book of Practical Physick, which deals with female diseases and general health. The first two books first appeared together in 1671 but not in a continuously paginated edition until 1693. Though the work was frequently reprinted, seveneteenth and early eighteenth-century editions do not survive well, most being well-used on a regular basis.

798G Anon The Compleat Sheriff: wherein is set forth, his office and authority; with directions, how and in what manner to execute the same, according to the common and statute laws of this kingdom, which are now in force and use: and the judgments and resolutions of the judges in divers late cases in the several courts of Westminster, relating thereunto. Likewise of Under-Sheriffs and their deputies… to which is added, the office and duty of coroners, and many modern adjudged cases relating to the office of a Sheriff to this time, &c. The second edition, with large additions In the Savoy: printed by John Nutt. 1710 2900 Octavo Full contemp. panelled calf, raised bands, gilt dec. spine; lacking label, sl. cracking to head of upper joint. Armorial bookplate of the Marquess of Headfort. v.g. Second Edition with additions ESTC T90638, BL, NLW, Oxford & National Trust only in British Isles; Columbia, Harvard & Kansas in North America.
812G Translator’s dedication signed: H.H., i.e. Henry Hawkins. Serre, M. de (Jean-Puget), [1600-1665] The sweete thoughts of death and eternity Paris [i.e. Saint-Omer : Printed by the English College Press], 1632 π1 ã A-X Y . STC (2nd ed.), 20492
Copies – N.America Folger Shakespeare , Huntington Library ,University of Texas

3 (only three other copies Listed in the US)

761F John Johnson 1662-1725

The clergy-Man’s vade mecum. Part II. Containing the canonical codes of the primitive, universal, Eastern, and Western Church, Down to the Year of our Lord, DCCLXXXVII. Done from the original Greek and Latin, omitting no Canon, Decree, or any Part of them that is Curious or Instructive; With explanatory notes, a large index, and a preface shewing the Usefulness of the Work; with some Reflections on Moderate-Non-Conformity, and the Rights of the Church.

London : printed for J. Nicholson, R. Knaplock, and Sam. Ballard, in Little-Britain and St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCIX. [1709] $1,150

Duodecimo [4],cxxii,[14],294,[46]p. ; 12 . This copy is bound in full contemporary calf. Johnson was vicar of St. John’s, Margate, then Cranbrook, Kent. He sympathized with the Nonjurors. His major theological work was The Unbloody Sacrifice and Altar Unvailed and Supported. (1714-18)

John Johnson was born December the 30th 1662. He was the son of the reverend Mr. Thomas Johnson, Vicar of Frindsbury near Rochester in Kent by his wife Mary, the Daughter of the Reverend Mr. Francis Drayton, Rector of Little Chart in the same county within the Diocese of Canterbury. His Father having been married about four years died, leaving this son and one daughter to the care of his wife, with a small estate, which lying near Canterbury she settled in that City where she continued a widow for above sixty Years, dying about the 90th Year of her Age, about two Years after the Death of her Son. She put him to the King’s School in that City where he made such a Progress in the learned Languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, under Mr. Lovejoy, the then Master of that School, that when he was little more than fifteen Years of Age he was sent to St. Mary Magdalene College in Cambridge, where he was admitted under the Tuition of Mr. Turner, a Fellow of that House March 4 167/8. And in Lent Term 1681/2 he took the Degree of Bachelor of Arts as a Member of that College. Soon after he was nominated by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury to a Scholarship in Corpus Christ,i commonly called Bennet, College, being of the Foundation of Matthew Parker, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, after the Settlement of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth: To which he was admitted April 29, 1682, under the Tuition of Mr. Beck, Fellow of that House. He took the Degree of Master of Arts as a Member of that College at the Commencement 1685. Soon after he entered into Deacon’s Orders, and became Curate to Mr Thomas Hardres at Hardres near Canterbury. And was ordained Priest in King Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster, by Dr Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, and Dean of that Church, Decem.1686. And July 9, 1687, he was collated to the Vicarage of Boughton under the Blean, by Archbishop Bancroft. And by the same Archbishop he was allowed to hold the Vicarage of Hernhill adjoining to Boughton, by Sequestration: Both which Churches he supplied himself, preaching one Part of the Day at one Church, and the other at the other… In the Year 1689 October 24 he married Margaret [Jenkin]. He had five Children, two Sons and three Daughters. But it pleased God to deprive him of his eldest Daughter in her Infancy, and likewise of his youngest Son, soon after he had bound him Apprentice to Mr. Knaplock his Bookseller. And a few Years after, his younger Daughter died also in the Prime of her Years. These, though a considerable Loss to so tender a Father, who was fond of all his Children, yet were not equal to the Loss of his Elder, and then only Son… [His son] had the Misfortune to break his Leg, which threw him into a Fever, of which he died in a few Days about Christmas 1723. Mr Johnson the Father could not overcome this severe Stroke: Though as became a good Man, and a Christian Priest, he intermitted not his Studies, or the Duties of his Office on this Occasionj nevertheless from this Time his Strength visibly decayed, and he was afflicted with a Shortness of Breath, which increased upon him till he died, which was about two Years after his Son, upon the 15th Day of December, in the Year of our Lord 1725, having just reached the 63d Year of his Age. He was buried in the Church Yard of his Parish of Cranbrook close to the Wall of the Vestry.

[H]e wrote and published… the Clergyman’s Vade Mecum, or an Account of the ancient and present Church of England the Duties and Rights of the Clergy and of their Privileges and Hardships Containing full Directions relating to Ordination Institution and Induction and most of the Difficulties which they commonly meet with in the Discharge of their Office. Here, he shewed himself to be well skilled in all the Laws of this Church Civil and Ecclesiastical. And this Book was so well received by the Publick, especially the Clergy, that about every third Year there was a Call for a new Impression; for in about 15 Years there were no less than five Editions of it, the first Edition in the Year 1708 and the fifth in the Year 1723. After this, in the Year 1709 he wrote and published- The Clergyman’s Vade Mecum Part II containing the Canonical Codes of the Primitive Universal Eastern and Western Church down to the Year of our Lord 787. Done from the original Greek and Latin, omitting no Canon, Decree, or any Part of them that is curious or instructive: With explanatory Notes, a large Index, and a Preface, shewing the Usefulness of the Work, with some Reflections on two Books, called Moderate Non-conformity and the Rights of the Church. In this second Part he shewed himself to be no less skilled in the Ecclesiastical Laws and Discipline of the ancient Church than in the former he had shewed it in the Laws and Discipline of his own Church. This Book has also had a third Edition.” -from Brett, The Life of the Late Reverend John Johnson.

“Here I shall shew, First, The usefulness of this Work. Secondly, the Manner in which I perform it. I. The Usefulness of it will appear from the Ends which may hereby be served, which are, 1. To give the Reader a true Scheme of the Government and Discipline of the Ancient Church. 2. To prove that the Church as such has all along been Govern’d by it’s Pastors. 3. To shew what Order of Pastors it was that has Govern’d the Church. 4. By this means to Vindicate the Constitution of our own Church, and to shew that our Dissenters are Men by themselves in the Method they take of Forming and Governing their Churches. And 5. That by looking into the Ancient Policy of the Church, we may better understand our own, and have some Rules whereby to govern our selves in dubious Cases.” -Author’s Preface to The Clergy-Man’s Vade Mecum ESTC Citation No. T33107

790G R(obert) H(owllet) fl 1696

The School Of Recreation: Or A Guide To The Most Ingenious Exercises Of Hunting, Riding, Racing, Fireworks, Military Discipline, The Science Of Defence, Hawking, Tennis, Bowling, Singing, Cock-fighting, Fowling, Angling.

London : printed for A. Bettesworth, at the Red-Lyon on London-Bridge, 1710. $4,400 Duodecimo 5.25 X 3.25 A13, B-G12 This little handbook, with its many and diverse subjects, provides a tantalizing window onto the past. In his preface, the author advocates the practice of these hobbies for pleasure, to promote a ‘healthful constitution,’ and for ‘profit and advantage.’ Further, he uses the phrase ‘leisure hours’ and recommends practicing these recreations ‘to unbend your cares after the tiresome drudgery of weighty temporal matters.’ He also calls the pursuit of these various diversions harmless, but warns the reader not to become so absorbed in these pastimes that he neglect his other duties.

The very idea that people in this period had leisure time is interesting in itself, and the details found inside this volume provide a very clear picture of the activities described. Any student of the past who follows the careful instructions laid out in Howllet’s School of Recreation would be able to re-create the personal entertainments of the English from the end of the seventeenth century.

We might expect to read about hunting, but the author also includes a lengthy description of dog breeding, with breeds mentioned by name, advice for what to look for when breeding for specific traits, and details about kenneling and canine health issues. Similarly, the English have had an enthusiasm for riding that goes back through the centuries, and the chapter on horses goes into great detail about training, riding, tack, and more, with a special chapter on racing.

The section on ‘Artificial Fire-works’ is a little less anticipated, and does not disappoint. Howllet categorizes fireworks into three general ‘sorts: ’those that ascend in the air; those that consume on the earth; and such as burn on the water.’ He also describes how to make molds for rockets, and follows with what can only be described as recipes for a sky rocket, golden rain, silver stars, red fiery colored stars, stars that give reports, mortars for balloons, the inimitable ‘flying saucisson,’ (or sausage) for earth and water, fire boxes, fiery lances, trees and fountains of fire, fire wheels, ground rockets, fiery globes. The author describes how to test powder, and some really amazing-sounding fireworks with figures made of cardboard and wicker to look like St. George slaying the dragon, mermaids, and whales. “In [the dragon’s] mouth and eyes you must fix serpents, or small rockets, which being fired at their setting out, will cause a dreadful sight in a dark night.”

The section on military discipline is interesting, but hard to understand practiced as a hobby. I suppose that one needs to be ever at the ready. Fun military exercises done with pikes and muskets are included here, to keep your skills in peak form, even during peacetime. The reader may perform them on foot or while mounted.

The chapters that follow are too numerous to treat separately with any fairness. They include sword fighting and fencing, hawking, bowling, tennis, hand bell ringing (with many songs or ‘bobs’ included), vocal music (with two beautiful text diagrams), followed by cock fighting (including advice on caring for your cock which includes, but is not limited to licking his head and eyes with your tongue, and then feeding him hot urine, see page 145), fowling (hunting wild birds like ducks, pheasants, etc.), and finally, fishing (including fly fishing with real and ‘artificial’ flies, and recipes for bait).

The School of Recreation continues to educate its readers with innocent and enlightening leisure time activities.

Dauids soliloquie. Containing many comforts for afflicted mindes. As they were deliuered in sundry sermons at Saint Maries in Douer. By Io: Reading.

Printed [by John Legat] for Robert Allot, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Pauls Church-yeard at the signe of the Greyhound :1627 $9,50 Octavo 5 1/2 X 3 inches A-V X .Leaves A1, A11, A12 are blank. This copy is bound in original soiled vellum. matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 4 May 1604, and graduated B.A. on 17 October 1607. When he proceeded M.A. on 22 June 1610, he was described as of St. Mary Hall. Taking holy orders, he became about 1614 chaplain to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche of Haringeworth, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and governor of Dover Castle.

After preaching at Dover many sermons before his patron, Reading was on 2 December 1616, at the request of the parishioners, appointed minister of St. Mary’s. He secured a position of influence in the town, and subsequently became chaplain to Charles I and B.D. Although his sermons advocated Puritan principles, he supported the king’s cause in the English Civil War.

In 1642 his study at Dover was plundered by parliamentary soldiers, and he was imprisoned for nineteen months. By direction of Charles I, William Laud, then a prisoner in the Tower of London, gave Rading the rectory of Chartham, Kent, on 27 January 1643. The House of Commons declined to sanction Reading’s institution, and appointed Edward Corbett. Laud refused to abandon Reading, and the house passed on that ground an ordinance sequestrating the archbishop’s temporalities. A prebend in Canterbury which was bestowed on Reading at the same time brought him no advantage.

In July 1644 he was presented by Sir William Brockman to the living of Cheriton, Kent, and in the same year Reading was appointed by the Westminster Assembly to be one of nine commissioned to write annotations on the New Testament. These were published in ‘Annotations upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament, wherein the Text is explained, Doubts resolved, Scriptures paralleled, and various Readings observed,’ London, 1645, 1651, and 1657. But shortly after 1645, on the discovery of a plot for the capture of Dover Castle by the royalists, he was arrested by command of Major John Boys, and hurried to Dover Castle, and next day to Leeds Castle. There he composed the “Guide to the Holy City.”’ He was at length discharged by the parliamentary committee for Kent, and the restitution of his goods was ordered; but his livings were sequestered. On 8 January 1647 he was a prisoner in the Fleet Prison. On 10 March 1650 he attacked the right of unordained preaching in a public disputation with the baptist Samuel Fisher of Folkestone. Fisher used arguments from Jeremy Taylor’s “Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying,”’ which Reading had already criticised in print.

Reading was restored to his Dover living shortly before the English Restoration of 1660. On 25 May 1660 he presented to Charles II, on his first landing, a large bible with gold clasps, in the name of the corporation of Dover, and made a short speech, which was published as a broadside. He was shortly afterwards restored to Chartham, made canon of the eighth prebend of Canterbury, and reinstituted to Cheriton on 18 July . In October following the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.D. per literas regias. Before August 1662 he resigned the living at Dover. STC (2nd ed.), 20788

4 (only four other copies Listed in the US)

635F Samuel Covil fl 1680’s

Mock poem: or, Whiggs supplication. Part I.

Edinburgh : printed by James Watson, and sold at his shop opposite to the Lucken-Booths, 1711 1800 Octavo 9 x 14 cm A-G8, H4. First Edinburgh Edition This copy is bound in modern quarter calf. Of Colvil’s personal history nothing is known. His first appearance as a writer is supposed to have been in 1673. A work printed at Edinburgh in that year is extant, entitled “An Historical Dispute of the Papacy and Popish Religion,” which bears to be written by “Sam. Colvil,” but whether this was the same individual who wrote the “Whigs’ Supplication” is not certain. The latter work was published at London, in duodecimo, in the year 1681. It was much read, and has even continued to be read, down to a late period. Samuel Colville, was a poet of considerable reputation. He is described as a gentleman ; * an expression which is perhaps intended to signify that he belonged to no profession ; and his name occurs in a ” bond of provision,” executed by his father on the 5th of May 1643. His popularity as a poet seems at least to have equalled his merit. His ” Whiggs Supplication” was circulated before it appeared in print, and manuscript copies of it are still to be found: it was published in the year 1681, and has passed through several editions. Colville is manifestly an imitator of Butler, but he displays a slender portion of Butler’s wit and humour. The language of his poem was apparently intended for English, but is interspersed with many Scotish words and idioms. ESTC Citation No. T32966
Foxon, C308

744G John Langston 1641-1704

Lusus poeticus Latino-Anglicanus in usum scholarum. Or The more eminent sayings of the Latin poets collected; and for the service of youth in that ancient exercise, commonly called capping of verses, alphabetically digested; and for the greater benefit of young beginners i the Latin tongue, rendred into English. By John Langston teacher of a private grammar-school near Spittle-fields, London

London : printed for Henry Eversden at the Crown in Cornhil, near the Stocks-market, 1675. 1400 Octavo 5 3/4 X 3 3/4 Inches This copy is bound in full 17th century calf, recently expertly rebacked. First edition, 2nd edition in 1679 and 3rd edition in 1688. This alphabetically arranged compendium of eminent sayings by Latin poets for the service of youth in capping of verses is the work for which Langston is best remembered. He issued a lesser known grammatical work, “Poeseos Graecae Medulla”, in 1679. He published nothing of a religious nature, but issued the following for school purposes: 1. ‘Lusus Poeticus Latino-Anglicanus,’ &c., 1675, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1679, 8vo; 3rd edition, 1688, 12mo (intended as an aid to capping verses). 2. ‘ π . Sive Poese Græcæ Medulla, cum versione Latina,’ &c., 1679, 8vo.”

LANGSTON, was an , independent divine, was born about 1641, according to Calamy. He went from the Worcester grammar school to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was matriculated as a servitor in Michaelmas term 1655, and studied for some years. Wood does not mention his graduation. At the Restoration in 1660 (when, if Calamy is right, he had not completed his twentieth year) he held the sequestered perpetual curacy of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire, from which be was displaced by the return of the incumbent. He went to London, and kept a private school near Spitalfields. On the coming into force of the Uniformity Act (24 Aug. 1662) he crossed over to Ireland as chaplain and tutor to Captain Blackwell, but returned to London and to school-keeping in 1663. Under the indulgence of 1672 he took out a license, in concert with William Hooke (d. March 1677, aged 77), formerly master of the Savoy, ‘to preach in Richard Loton’s house in Spittle-yard.’ Some time after 1679 he removed into Bedfordshire, where he ministered till, in 1686, he received an invitation from a newly separated congregation of independents, who had hired a building in Green Yard, St. Peter’s parish, Ipswich. Under his preaching a oongregational church of seventeen persons was formed on 12 Oct. 1686. Langston, his wife, and thirty others were admitted to membership on 22 Oct., when a call to the pastorate was given him; he accepted it on 29 Oct., and was set apart by four elders at a solemn fast on 2 Nov. A ‘new chappell’ in Green Yard was opened on 26 June 1687, and the church membership was raised to 123 persons, many of them from neighbouring villages. Calamy says he was driven out of his house, was forced to remove to London, and was there accused of being a jesuit, whereupon he published a successful ‘Vindication.’ The publication is unknown, and Calamy gives no date; the year 1697 has been suggested. Langston’s church-book gives no hint of any persecution, but shows that he was in the habit of paying an annual visit of about three weeks’ duration to London with his wife. He notices the engagement with the French fleet at La Hogue on 19 May 1692, ‘for ye defeat of wh blessed he God,’ and the earthquake on 8 Sept. in the same year. The tone of his ministry was conciliatory ‘towards people of different perswasions.’ In November 1702 Benjamin Glandfield (d. 10 Sept. 1720) was appointed as his assistant. Langston died on 12 Jan. 1704, ‘aetat. 64.’ (DNB).

Wing L411; Arber’s Term cat. I 213.

761G Eyreneus Philoctetes is a pseudonym. Anonymous

Philadelphia, or brotherly love to the studious in the Hermetick art. Wherein is discovered the principles of the Hermetick philosophy, with much candor and plainness. Written by Eyreneus Philoctetes.
London: printed, and sold by T. Sowle, at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-Lane in Shoreditch,1694 $2,800

Duodecimo 5 X 3 inches (tilte in facsimile)A7,a4,(c)4,d1,B8,C4,d8E4,F8,G4 (final blank) First and only edition. This copy is bound in full early molted sheep. Sometimes erroneously attributed to George Starkey. Cf. Wilkinson (Ambix, XII, 1, 1964, p.33). This book is listed as being in Isaac Newton’s library [H1296] Philadelphia, or Brotherly love to the studious in the hermetick art … Written by Eyreneus Philoctetes. 12°, London, 1694. [The author is probably not, as Harrison tentatively conjectures, G. Starkey: not listed in Newman’s bibliography of Starkey’s pseudonymous publications, Gehennical Fire, 262-70.] John Harrison, The Library of Isaac Newton (Cambridge: CUP, 1978)This copy is biund in full early molted sheep.

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729G Anonymous

Αστηρ!του!Χριστου!Βασιλικος:! or, Nuncius Christi Sydereus. The Star of the Eastern-Sages; being a discourse of that Star, its nature, conduct, and tendency, With the glorious kingdom of the Son of God, (now) under the cross, and shortly at his next appearance to fill the whole earth. Also some account of comets, and other signs presaging it.

London : printed for Dorman Newman, at the Kings-Arms in the Poultrey, 1681. 3800 Octavo A-K L . First edition This copy is bound in full modern calf in an antique style, there are tape stains on the folding plate, but they are minor. A dictionary of writers on the prophecies, by the ed. of the Investigator on … By Joshua William Brooks “
This book does not appear with a dedicatee but there is a copy in the Huntington Library that has a manuscript verse dedication to Shaftesbury, adressed as the savior of the nation, on the fly leaf (Millenarianism and Messianism in early modern European culture) (Force & Popkin 2001) Wing (2nd ed.), A4068a

While we consider the Protestant Reformation to have been formally begun in 1517 with Luthers’s “95 Theses ” the Official counter reformation is considered to begin with the Council of Trent 1545-1563 yet, long before the Roman catholic Church, began its formal response many theologians dressed the subjects at the heart of this great schism. The five tracts I offer here are specific responses to these Reformation objections.

The De confessione secreta (Antwerp, 1525)An attack on Johannes Oecolampadius and Beatus Rhenanus. Latomus was a theological adviser to the Inquisition, and his exchange with William Tyndale is particularly noted. The general focus of his academic work centered on opposing Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, supporting the divine right of the papacy and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church Nijhof-Kronenberg 1325.

Roman Catholic controversialist. His real name was Dobeneck. He went to Cologne in 1504, where he developed a distaste for Scholasticism and a strong sympathy for the Platonist and humanist revival of the Renaissance. In 1521 and the following years he was engaged in writing against M. Luther, but the bitter tone of his polemic gained little favour even from his own side. In 1526 he accepted a canonry at Mainz, c.1534 at Meissen, and in 1539 at Breslau. He attended many of the conferences of the period, at which the points of difference between Catholics and Protestants were argued, but on these occasions his services were little used. His best-known works are Historiae Hussitarum Libri XII (1549) and Commentaria de Actis et Scriptis M. Lutheri, 1517–1546 (1549). In 1525 he had made every endeavour to prevent the printing of W. Tyndale’s English New Testament at Cologne. Panzer (annales typographici); VIII: 328, 59

Schatzgeyer was born at Landshut in Bavaria in 1463 or 1464. For many years he was guardian at Munich, and since 1517 first provincial superior of the Strasbourg religious province of the Friars Minor, and definitor-general.In 1523 he was appointed inquisitor for Germany (the Holy Roman Empire). Schatzgeyer energetically opposed the new doctrine as heretical errors, both in word and writing. It is in great part due to him and his confreres that the Catholic Faith held its ground in southern Germany, and that the Bavarian Government strenuously defended its cause. Within a few years he published upwards of twenty-three works in which he defended the Catholic position on such doctrines as grace, the veneration of saints, monasticism, the indissolubility of marriage, the Mass, purgatory etc.He died at Munich in 1527.His writings have received the highest praise from John Eck, who collected and published them at Ingolstadt in 1543.

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Henry Hawkins, the Jesuit priest and author, is probably the best-known of the children of Sir Thomas Hawkins of Boughton-under-Blean. The Boughton parish register for the year 1577 includes the following entry:

The 8th of Octobr was bapt. Henrie Haukyns the sonne of Thomas Haukyns the younger.

It seems likely that Henry was privately educated at home; we know that his father employed a Mr Greene, a recusant schoolmaster, at the family home at Nash Hall, Boughton. Following the example of his older brother Thomas, Henry then attended Gloucester Hall, Oxford (the predecessor of Worcester College), matriculating on 3rd November 1592 at the age of fourteen. In a report to the government about recusancy at the University in 1577, the year of Henry Hawkins’ birth, it was stated that Gloucester Hall was ‘greatly suspected’ of being a refuge for recusants. A…